Jeremy was bounding down the stairs to his rented car. “Following a hunch.”

“Call me, okay? I’m staying at the Parker House.”

“Right.”

The rock where Ashley and David had played pirates as children stood just beyond a stone wall that divided field and woods. It was a large, solitary boulder, left by the glaciers of long ago, and the twins had liked to play there because it was near a shallow brook and not too deep into the woods. The possibilities for imaginative play had been endless.

Ashley laid the velvet jewel cases in the princess pine and freshly fallen leaves at the southern base of the boulder, which was taller than she or her brother. David, of course, had come with her.

She asked him, “Did you ever believe in the bogeyman?”

“Uh-uh.”

“I did. When I was out here alone, I sometimes felt it watching me.”

David didn’t make fun of her. Instead he admitted, “I believed we had lions and tigers and bears in the woods, and I used to think I was going to be eaten alive any second.”

“We all have our fears.” She smiled. David’s bruises were healing nicely, but he still moved slowly, and his ribs, especially, seemed to give him some pain. She went on, talking quietly, “And we’ve hardly even seen a measly old fox out here.”

“I know it.”

“David, are we doing the right thing?”

“We’re doing the only thing we can do.”

He crept through the ferns and layers of dead leaves and crouched behind a smaller boulder, about ten yards south of the pirate’s rock. From his vantage point, he could see anyone approach the jewels. Ashley climbed an oak near him; she was on lookout. Just like when they were kids, she thought, guarding their treasure from other marauding pirates.

The temperature had fallen, and the clouds rolled in once again, true to the changeable nature of the New England climate. It began to rain. The dampness brought out the smells of the woods, of rotting leaves and wet bark and muddy stream. Ashley wasn’t prepared for the sudden afternoon shower, or even for skulking about in the woods and climbing trees. The rain pelted her silk suit and soaked her nylon stockings. In a matter of minutes, she was drenched and shivering. She had, at least, put on a pair of sneakers; they were squishy now.

The wind and rain brought down bright red leaves from the young maples. Even in the rain, the woods glittered with the brightest colors of fall. Ashley looked out across the fields, where cornstalks yellowed in the cool autumn air.

A rustling sound came from below. Twigs, leaves, the wind—it could be anything. She looked all around her.

A stout figure was moving toward them from deeper within the woods. It was a male figure and was dressed totally in black: black turtleneck, black trousers, black socks, black shoes. He jumped lightly across the muddy stream, and Ashley saw the fringe of brown hair.